Fountain utilities director warns of lower water revenues, outlines projects and a generator reimbursement

Fountain — City utilities officials told the Fountain City Council on July 8 that lower water use this year has left rate revenue below budget, and described a set of infrastructure and billing changes intended to protect reliability and reduce costs.

"what we're doing is we're we're working to increase the reliability, of the services and the quality of services that we provide while reducing, the expenses or the costs that are, we incur to, to to provide those services," Utilities Director Dan Blankenship told the council during an annual utilities presentation.

Blankenship said the city completed a water rate study with a five‑year plan (first step implemented March 1, second step scheduled Jan. 1 next year) but through June rate revenue remained about $275,000 below the target for the year, driven largely by reduced water consumption: roughly 7.5% below the five‑year average and about 2.5% below last year. He said staff would continue to monitor and manage expenses to offset the shortfall.

Why it matters: lower consumption helps conserve water but also reduces revenue that pays for system maintenance and upgrades. The presentation outlined projects and policy changes intended to control costs and improve service without shifting unexpected risk to current customers.

Key initiatives and findings

- Automated meter infrastructure (AMI): Blankenship said the city deployed an in‑house Neptune AMI water meter data system, largely grant funded, that will allow daily (rather than monthly) meter reads and customer access to near‑real‑time consumption data. "it will enable us to actually collect, water consumption data on a daily basis," he told the council, adding that the system already generated a handful of heavy‑use alerts and…